700 BD expats to get arrears in Malaysia

Staff Reporter :
A total of 733 unemployed Bangladeshi migrant workers in Pengerang, Johor in Malaysia will get over RM 1 million equivalent to Tk 2,38,41,056 as arrears from their supposed employers.

The Human Resources Ministry of Malaysia said the workers and their employers had reached a mutual agreement for the payment of RM 1,035,557.50 in wages to the respective workers following proceedings carried out by Johor Labour Department officers.

Earlier, those unemployed Bangladeshi migrants have filed a case with the labour department claiming the companies have hired them offering adequate wages but they failed to give them jobs after arrival.

The Malaysian ministry said the case’s conclusion would serve as a precedent for future labour cases and warned other employers in the country to take heed.

“This case involves migrant workers who were legally brought into the country but were not provided with employment upon their arrival in the country and were then deserted,” it said.

But activists who work closely with the workers felt they came out of the negotiations shortchanged, and that the concessions were more favourable to the recruitment company despite the allegations of fraud.

This would send a bad signal that could encourage instead of deter recruitment syndicates from an industry that human rights groups said is comparable to human trafficking, they said.

The recruitment company was directed to pay roughly RM1 million in backdated salaries to 733 workers, an average of just RM 1,364 per worker or some RM 450 a month (October to December), based on the negotiation papers sighted the Malay Mail, with no other compensation offered for their predicament.

“If any employers are found such guilty anymore, that will be blacklisted by the authorities, and their quotas for foreign workers will be cancelled,” the ministry warned.

It said also the ministry would not compromise on any parties that violate labour laws.

The ministry added that workers would now be matched with new employers through a special employer exchange process facilitated by the labour department.

Earlier on January 16, Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said that 751 Bangladeshi workers in Pengerang had been left stranded and jobless in the country after they were duped by employers to enter the country.

The workers had then reportedly filed a RM 2.21 million claim for unpaid wages from their employers.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Human Resources Minister Steven Sim have vowed to step up reforms of the government’s foreign worker intake system, promising at their first press conference together stronger inter-ministry cooperation and to speed up “improvements in management and coordination” to streamline the application process and prevent abuse.